Vanuatu’s Climate Minister: “We Are Already Past Adaptation”

During Climate Week in New York in 2025, I sat down with Minister Ralph Regenvanu of Vanuatu. We spoke about the significance of the recent advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, the operationalization of the Loss and Damage Fund, and what is at stake for the Pacific Islands, their people, and their traditional knowledge if the islands do not survive climate change.

ICJ Advisory Opinion and Climate Action

Q: What are you most excited about in the moment?

Minister Regenvanu:
The advisory opinion we received from the International Court of Justice has clarified the obligations that we believed every state has under the UN Charter, as well as under various human rights conventions, the UNFCCC, and others. And interestingly, the court said that states have a duty to control the private actors operating in their jurisdictions. A state can be committing an international wrongful act if it licenses production of fossil fuels, or extends the working life of fossil fuel mines or extraction in a way that harms the environment.

One of the main ways this advisory can drive change is by assisting the many groups and individuals engaged in litigation within states against their own governments. That is happening already, and there will be further proliferation of these kinds of cases. The advisory opinion is a very clear signal of how international law is interpreted, which will help citizen-led litigation against governments.

Q: Are there any loopholes that you think might weaken that opportunity?

Minister Regenvanu:
Well, obviously it is an advisory opinion. There is no mechanism as such to enforce it at the international level, so any enforcement will have to come from the states. At the state level, we will continue to use it to amplify our arguments, in the lead-up to the upcoming COP, for example.

Q: Do you see a moral hazard where states that are already doing a lot will comply with the advisory opinion, while the biggest culprits might count themselves out?

Minister Regenvanu:
The advisory opinion applies to all states, regardless of whether they have ratified Paris or whether they recognize the United Nations' authority. And that was very clear from the ICJ decision. It applies regardless. It is a basic tenet of international law. So if you are a state in the international system, it applies to you.

Q: Based on that advisory opinion, how it will be possible for the states to control their private sector with respect to their carbon emissions, especially for private companies that have a truly international footprint?

Minister Regenvanu:
It is the old question about how do we get corporate responsibility when the companies are present in different countries. This brings us back to issues like tax avoidance. It would depend on the countries where the companies are domiciled to take that action. But in the same way, we are seeing tax action happen across borders. The same logic will apply to companies curbing emissions.

Vanuatu’s Coalition-Building

Q: Let us return to your home country. I imagine your voice is a strong one on the global stage. Still, how are you building partnerships with other nations to create a united front?

Minister Regenvanu:

There are several coalitions of willing states working together to push for greater climate ambition. One of the most prominent is the High Ambition Coalition, which played a key role in securing the Paris Agreement, for example. We are also part of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, which brings together countries most affected by climate change. Then there is AOSIS (the Alliance of Small Island States), which negotiates as part of the G77 plus China bloc in the United Nations climate talks.

Each of these groupings plays a role in driving different aspects of climate ambition. For instance, on September 24, we announced a new coalition of around 16 countries that will begin negotiating a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. Colombia will host the first meeting next year. This process will mirror the model used in treaties like the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It is starting outside the United Nations system, with like-minded states, before building broader momentum.

There are also existing international efforts such as the Global Methane Pledge and the Powering Past Coal Alliance. Vanuatu aims to be part of all these efforts, to help push ambition on every front. These groupings often include a mix of countries. For instance, the Powering Past Coal Alliance includes high-emitting nations like Australia and the United Kingdom. The Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance includes France and Denmark.

Being part of these coalitions allows us to engage with countries that might not always be aligned with us in broader negotiations, but who are willing to collaborate on specific actions. By working with them, we can push forward key aspects of the climate agenda they are comfortable with, while simultaneously advocating for more ambitious, comprehensive climate action overall.

Beyond Adaptation: Defining Loss and Damage

Q: Adaptation is now gaining more and more traction as some countries are recognizing that some rise in the sea level is inevitable. What is your take on the shift that we have been observing in the last couple of years from mitigation to adaptation?

Minister Regenvanu:

Unfortunately, I think that the political impetus to phase out fossil fuels is not going anywhere fast. We are seeing emphasis on the rapid roll-out of renewables, which is very good. But the actual phasing out of fossil fuels is not moving at a commensurate rate. And that is a reflection of where this world is. Spending on the military, for example, is the highest it has been since World War II.

The push to adaptation, I think, is just happening because we are seeing that our climate is now starting to show symptoms of change. We are now in it, right? Because everywhere in the world, every single country, is experiencing these heightened natural hazards that are causing more and more harm to the environment, and particularly to human communities.

In Vanuatu, a country on the front line, we are already talking about loss and damage. Now we are past adaptation. Vanuatu will be the first country to be supported by the Santiago Loss and Damage Network this year. We have got a project, a loss and damage policy. We are now starting to work on loss and damage legislation, including a fund, and particularly defining loss and damage for ourselves. I would say that is the same for many of the most climate-vulnerable countries.

Q: Could you expand a little bit more on operationalizing the existing loss and damage commitments that were announced in the past years?

Minister Regenvanu:
We have not actually received the money yet, but we have been the first country in terms of having a project to submit to the loss and damage fund, which is now set up. We are one of the first countries in the process of applying for funding, and I expect that we will see that by this time next year. I do know that the amount is much, much smaller than we were hoping. But we still have time to operationalize and get more funding, and so that is part of what these negotiations, particularly the COP and others, will be. It will be about trying to provide more funding to that fund.

Q: Would you be open to describing the project that you are trying to implement as part of that fund?

Minister Regenvanu:
A lot of it is about helping Vanuatu define what loss and damage means for us. What are the criteria for dealing with loss and damage in Vanuatu? A lot of our loss and damage is non-economic. It is hard to quantify. How do we provide for non-economic loss and damage?

We are also developing our own national mechanisms: legislation, regulations, policy. We have started doing that now. We have put our policy in place. The next step is: how do we tailor international funding to fit that, and how do we disperse it? So it is about setting up our own systems to be able to deal with this concept of loss and damage, one that we define and can then use to access funding.

Q: It is an economics question: how would you identify loss of connection to the land, and how would you quantify it? What are your thoughts on attaching dollar value to these really important but non-market goods that will be lost?

Minister Regenvanu:
You have to do it through innovative solutions. I will give the example of Tuvalu, because Tuvalu is a country that is facing the existential loss of its whole territory. So they are fighting for, for example, international recognition of state boundaries once the land is gone. That is an effort that is coming to the United Nations. There will be a declaration next year that we are certainly seeking support for. So there is international recognition. International law says that when your baselines are gone, you still maintain that territory in the ocean. Tuvalu is also building a virtual government, a virtual state. It is like you can access government services, but physically there will be no government. This way, the nation exists as a virtual entity.

Some of these things can be financed. For example, documentation of traditional knowledge and of sites that trigger traditional knowledge. For non-literate cultures, like the ones in the Pacific, traditional knowledge is tied to places in the landscape that trigger stories. You see a stone, it has a certain story attached; you see a tree, it has another story. So when those are gone, you tend to lose that intangible cultural heritage attached to them. We want to make sure that you are documenting as much as possible in all forms: film, video, photos, written, recorded, oral histories, maps. When you lose the land, you will still have as much as possible of a digital record of everything that goes with that site.

Q: Fascinating. I wanted to clarify whether Tuvalu citizens will be relocating to Australia?

Minister Regenvanu:
Australia signed an agreement with Tuvalu last year allowing around 200 people a year to move to Australia and get permanent residency. Tuvalu had to give up a lot in return, but that is the deal they struck. I know they also have land, which the government purchased in Fiji many years ago. Kiribati, which is in a similar situation, also has a deal with New Zealand for migration.

Q: What are the expectations from Climate Week in New York this year?

Minister Regenvanu:
Our expectations are the same as every year. We are looking to get the highest ambition from states, from the global community. That means using every intervention point possible: holding bilateral talks, convening with coalitions of willing states, making statements in the General Assembly, and meeting as many groups as possible to get statements out that reflect the highest ambition, particularly going into COP 30.